Tuesday, December 20, 2011

My Life: Special Holiday Surprise

I do NOT like cats ... I know there are many out in blog land who will disagree with me but I'm a dog person! My husband is also a big dog person, but due to the size of our little apartment paired with the fact that we are NEVER home, we just hadn't gotten one yet.

God, however, had other plans when he brought us Dudley ...

For days, this little orange cat hung around in our little apartment parking lot. He was pretty skiddish, and since I don't care for cats, I didn't pay too much attention to him ...
KC (who surprisingly had MORE of a heart than I did in this particular situation) began petting it everyday when he got home. Pretty soon the little stinker would greet us in the alley whenever we arrived home. He had adopted us. I may not like cats, but between the weather getting colder, his mangy hair, skinny tummy, and cries at our door, my heart broke and we left him some Salmon one night. That led to us opening the door and letting him snoop around ... which led to us brushing him ... feeding him ... and getting a litter box ... getting him fixed and shots ($$) ... and now, we have a cat!
He really  is a sweet heart - I love him.
I mean, I still don't love cats ... I just love Dudley. Studly Dudley.



My Life: December Birthday

Tuesday was my birthday - my partner teacher left me surprises ... 
she is amazing. 

Treat from her and my kiddos - Twix tree (fav. Candy bar!) 
She had all of our kids write sweet birthday cards for me :) They were adorable ... some were comical...
Student Card 1: "We have all been having birthdays and getting older, now it is your turn Mrs. B!" (thanks a lot! *grin) 
Student Card 2:"For your birthday I did not get you the stereotype teacher apple, instead I got you this card" (Brilliant since I HATE apples ... and the best part is that this kid used this weeks VOCABULARY WORD *stereotype*  IN MY BIRTHDAY CARD!!! My work is complete - proud smile) 
Student Card32:"I love coming into your class to learn social studies, reading, and writing. You make them fun!" (AW!! *hugs*) 
Student Card 4: "Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, but not as sweet as the teaching you do!" (tee heee) 
And of course I got plenty of GREEN BAY PACKERS cards, logos, and pictures! Like my husband says ... If a student doesn't come into my room with an NFL team - they leave a PACKERS fan :)

While I was having a splendid birthday at school, poor KC (my husband) went in for surgery. He is a HUGE wake boarder ... earlier in the fall he tore his ACL, a little cartilage, and part of his meniscus on a landing. Due to his internship, he postponed surgery till now. His mom took off work and brought him in ... when I got off work and came home he was conked out on the couch, a crazy contraption was attached to his leg which was elevated, ESPN was still blaring ... and this sweet little flower, bought at the hospital gift shop,  was on the counter for my birthday. 
I just love that man!
Since he was having sugery on my birthday, we celebrated it this weekend. Saturday night we went out to a neat Irish restaurant and Pub and listened to LIVE AMAZING Irish music! I play the violin and Irish Fiddle is my FAVORITE! It was such a fun evening together!

Christmas Celebrations

We're almost finished with our celebrations of light unit - see Christmas Around the World post.
This year, I had the students create little booklets to keep their notes and the essential questions in throughout the unit.
I had them answer the unit's essential questions at the beginning of the unit and I will have them answer them this week again to show what they have learned and how they can apply it to these critical thinking questions.
Essential Questions:
Why is it that so many different cultures celebrate "Light" around the same time of year?
Why is it important to understand other cultures and their traditions?

We have had a great time learning about the different celebrations and comparing and contrasting them to our own holiday traditions.

My stations this week centered around the social studies theme "Christmas Around the World"
Station 1:
Students read together on the carpet different articles about how other countries and cultures celebrate around the month of December (Diwali, Hanukkah, St. Nicholas Day, St. Lucia Day, Festival of Lanterns, Chinese New Year, Las Pasados)

Station 2: Students work cooperatively to create a holiday craft
Because I wanted to have different cultural elements, I actually had this station change each day
-create a menorah
-use critical thinking to put the paragraph together about Kwanzaa and the Kinara
- create a St. Lucia Wreath
- create a henna tattoo (Diwali)
 Station 3:
This idea I got from Cardigans and Curriculum
Write a persuasive letter to Santa explaining to him why your house is the BEST and why he should stop there
The idea was for the kids to use persuasive techniques such as exaggeration, flattery/compliments, whats in it for you? to convince Santa.
I required it to be done in a 5 paragraph essay format even thought it was a letter - it is good practice for kids to realize that a paragraph is generally not long enough to give adequate support in 5th grade. I try not to stress a specific number of paragraphs in any paper (for example 5 paragraph essay) I feel this limits kids... instead I just ask about how many might this end up being if we add everything we need.
Intro p. reason 1 p. reason 2 p. reason 3 p. closing = this one happens to be about 5 but some kids wrote more ... *smile*

Station 4:
I had three popular Christmas toons
-Silver Bells
-Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer
-The Grinch
They had to highlight the ADJECTIVES in each song
This was sadly, more difficult for them than I anticipated... we will continue reviewing parts of speech
heavily in the coming half of the year.

This is my first year doing centers (and I probably wouldn't have gotten the ball rolling if it weren't for the encouragement of my partner teacher!) But I am really enjoying them now! We do stations for a half an hour every morning. I try and incorporate each academic element that I teach - reading, writing, social studies - this is my most "integrated" part of the day. The kids do one station a morning - having completed each of the stations by Friday. On Friday, we "make up" any stations we weren't able to complete. They hang onto their center work in their ELA folders throughout the week. Center work is due Monday mornings.

I would love to hear how other teachers organize center time in their classrooms.

Do you do weekly centers? How do you do centers?



Note: Please be aware that that as a social studies educator, my purpose is to get students excited about learning other cultures as well as their own. I am not perfect in my education of this, though I do try and do a lot of research before teachings cultures and history. Concerning the crafts and activities used in my room, I try to make them as authentic as possible from my findings and research but do not claim to be a museum. Using tangible items helps spur students passion for the cultures and history we study and creates in them a desire to learn and discover more. If there is something that bothers you or have questions on my instruction concerning your culture or any other topic I may teach in my room, please feel free to email me personally to help me gain more understanding. I love learning about others and am always striving to educate my students better. 

Liebster Award

Casey, over at Cardigans and Curriculum just awarded me the Liebster Award! Thank you SO much!

The goal of the Liebster Award is to spotlight up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers.
So here is my list of GREAT yet-to-be-truly-discovered blogs I LOVE.


1.  In My Classroom: The Forest and the Trees is an AMAZING blog to get phenomenal reading resources and lesson ideas! 

2. Mrs. Hawk over at the Hawk's Nest is an incredibly creative and crafty teacher - I get so many cute ideas from her blog!

3. Lana, at For the Love of Teaching is a 4th grade teacher from the South. Her blog is lots of fun - learning is very hands on in her room!

4. I check out what's happening in Jastalville any time I am need of a little writing inspiration. Victoria is a brilliantly creative person who shares and share and shares!

5. Reading is Thinking is an amazing reading resource! Mrs. Kennedy uses so many fun and creative lesson to engage her students in critical thinking while reading.

Thank you all for sharing!

Monday, December 19, 2011

Finished Native American Diaramas

So I promised pictures of the finished product and here they are ...



Polynesian Region - complete with a volcano :)
The sugar cube igloo saw better days before this picture ;) 
yes, that is a jackrabbit roasting on the "ginormous" fire *grin*




I think they did a fabulous job!

Note: Please be aware that that as a social studies educator, my purpose is to get students excited about learning other cultures as well as their own. I am not perfect in my education of this, though I do try and do a lot of research before teachings cultures and history. Concerning the dioramas, I try to educate students on the breaking of stereotypes and regional uniquness as much as possible from my findings and research but do not claim to be an expert. By using tangible items it help spur students passion for the cultures and history we study and creates in them a desire to learn and discover more. If there is something that bothers you or have questions on my instruction concerning your culture or any other topic I may teach in my room, please feel free to email me personally to help me gain more understanding. I love learning about others and am always striving to educate my students better.

Rosie the Riveter & Dress up Days

Yes I know ... I am blogging in December about my Thanksgiving school spirit days - it's been a little hectic this season! I envy all you teacher bloggers who have a computer at home that you can curl up with, or a school computer that allows you to connect to blog land. My laptop is currently out-of-internet-commission and the silly school block bans this fantastic world from me at school. SO ... that leaves me getting on my dear husbands computer (a net book BTW - not the handiest for blogging I must say) which is very hard for me to struggle his hands free from between ebay sales, fantasy football, online sports articles, and such. But here I am tonight, curled up on my couch next to me beautiful Christmas tree, Dudley contently laying next to me, and the computer FINALLY on MY lap ;) What an evening ...

Did I ever mention I LOVE dress up days!!
Our Spirit days before Thanksgiving included mismatch day (no pix - such a randomly ugly day! haha)

SWITCH day - students were supposed to dress like their teacher and we were supposed to dress like our students. This one is always fun for me, each class has such a fashion personality :)

This year, I dressed like my girls on top and my boys on the bottom.
Girls: Bright colors, sweatshirts, headbands (which you cannot see very well in the picture *tear*)
Boys: This year my boys where basketball/soccer type shorts with tall socks almost EVERYDAY! and of course tennis shoes. LONG after Rocket Football has been over with, they are still trying to sport this ensamble with snow falling outside - needless to say, I was cold all day because of them :) 

We had a "dress like a Pirate day" for a our RIF program (Reading is Fundamental) - I'm not sure if it is Sad or Awesome that I don't ever have to buy anything to make any of my outfits ... *grin*

{ignore the phone picture quality!}
And my all time favorite dress up day of the year - Decades Day
While I have multiple era clothing, I tend to find myself dressing in some sort of 40's get up whenever decades day comes around. Last year I wore a fun polka dotted dress with red pumps, red lipstick and a head scarf - it was MARvolous!
This year I decided to still hold to my 40's love but took a more "masculine" approach - Rosie the Riveter!
I wish my little head scarf would have been a bit bigger - then I could have put all my hair in and been a bit more authentic - but it worked out great!
We had just visited the Michigan History Museum and the lady had shared info about women working in the factories and Rosie the Riveter so it worked out fun - most of them got it. I cannot say the same for the majority of the staff however ... they were a bit confused. *haha*
Our Dean of Students got a kick out of it and had me pose for a "Roise" shot - Fun Times :) I found this outside of my room after lunch.

I suppose it is a good reminder to all of us teachers as we head into the holiday season ...  
WE CAN DO IT!!!!
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